Monday, December 30, 2013

A reminder again to visit my pinterest page for more than 13,438 photos and 10,248 followers. All the photos I post on here are on there, actually many, many more that I'll never get on here. It's a real treat to have so many beautiful photos on one spot to just ogle over. I know you'll love seeing them. I search the internet diligently finding them to post.Two things I've come to realize lately:1. A best friend is one who will listen to your potty habits and lament with you. 2. Also, only a great grandmother will spend $2.28 to send her great grand daughters a 68¢ package of M&Ms!*

Since I post a lot of other homes and rooms, I thought I'd post my living room again today. It's a relatively small house at 1800 sq. ft., but even small houses can be made to look lovely and somewhat elegant—not saying mine is at all though, but pretty and comfy, to us anyway. I've switched the furniture from our family room back to the living room as I love this sofa more than any other. I made those side pillows out of some of the leftover fabric in which I had some chairs reupholstered many years ago. I had so much I eventually gave it to a friend as I doubted I'd ever make anything else out of that gorgeous fabric. The pillow in the middle I just made out of some drop cloth canvas, added a ruffle in a mini-rose fabric and added a little crown key chain sent to me by a member of an eBay group I had several years ago. I took it off the key ring and sewed it onto the pillow in the center. I rarely let anything go to waste around here if I can reuse it glamorously!

I stenciled a fleur-de-lis on two of the corners.

And here's a closeup of the little key chain crown. Easily sewn on and proudly announces that I am the Queen of this home! Just ask th' hubs and he'll agree posthaste. ;-)

I switch lamps around in this house frequently. This is one I redid with a new shade and added feathers, some Christmas beads in clear, white and red and a red ribbon flower I made many years ago. I reuse a lot of stuff around here. I usually try to get the other decorations off with a heat gun but I was afraid I'd set the ribbons on fire this time so I bought a new lamp shade at Wal-Mart. I have taken things off with a heat gun but I'd never try it with feathers. They'd catch fire for sure.

Here's a closeup of it. You can see on the bottom left I still have the rubber bands on the garland till I can find a way to keep them from unraveling (low on my priority list at the moment).

Here's a close-up of the shade. It's a $15.00 bell-shaped shade and a bargain at that price. I'll sometimes find lampshades at the thrift stores I can redo. I find a lot of lamps at the thrift stores also and bring them home, paint them white and voilà, like new. No matter what they looked like underneath—and some of them were pretty ugly—I can make them beautiful. An avocado ceramic one is now in our bedroom in white with decals on it. This one was metal and I painted it white and look how good it looks. Amazing what you can do "on th' cheap"!

An absolutely stunning elegant room, out of my price range, but I love the arrangement of furniture in it. I'd have pink on the walls of course. Pink just makes me feel good. I just love the color and I look good in pink. ;-)

A Charles Faudree room again, French style of course. He's one of the masters at doing French decor. Also, notice the mix of patterns he uses. I'm all for that. I love having different patterns in a room. Those flowered chairs especially appeal to me.

Mario Buatta. Another showcase home. I love his use of vivid colors and chintz.

Just an elegant, yet basically simple, room designed in a French style.

While the colors may be a bit wild, I get excited when some homeowner is as brave as I am with color. Love this room!

Mark Hampton is another favorite of mine. I guess you could say I tend more towards the traditional homey style.

Another French style room that is truly gorgeous while being in the range for most of us.

Anthony Baratta. I cannot say enough about his clean, fresh, bright rooms. He is just fantastic with his designs. They always touch my heart. I absolutely love this room and would live in it without a second thought.

A gorgeous very unpretentious room. The stone fireplace is a beauty and I love sofa tables behind sofas. My living room doesn't have enough room so my sofa table is on an opposite wall holding treasures of mine.

Monday, December 23, 2013

These are some more of my favorite rooms. I think you'll agree they are pretty, comfortable (without the overstuffed reclining sofas you see in so many homes).

This isn't very colorful but it's still a gorgeous room in the Northeastern-style of antiques and early American colors. But the room is comfortable with a sofa and enough comfortable chairs for good conversation and not centered around a television.

In fact, notice that most beautiful and cozy living rooms are not centered around media; they're arranged for comfortable times with friends and talking. (Understand I have an attitude about this; family and friends should spend time talking, not texting or watching television so much they're brain dead to conversation.)

This is one of my all-time favorite rooms also. I love the white sofa, the drapes on a rod separating the room from the dining room in a beautiful way and that large pillow on the sofa has definitely won my heart.

Charles Faudree is the designer of this room. It's one of his more simple rooms. I haven't yet found a room of his I haven't liked, some more than others, but he is one fantastic designer of French style.

Mario Buatta designed this room. I love his light and cheery style with the kind of fabrics I love also. This is a very pretty room sort of the Traditional style loved in the Eastern part of our country or even England. I especially love this use of colors.

Another Charles Faudree room. He's very famous for doing French decor almost exclusively. I haven't found any rooms of his I didn't think I'd love to have.

Another Anthony Baratta room. He has such clean, crispy colors and rooms. I think he decorates more for women as does Charles Faudree. I love this room with so many seating areas and the living florals with green walls and white wood in the room.

Another favorite room I could easily live in. Cozy English looking with beautiful colors. Not prissy but homey.

Mario Buatta room. You can see why I love his rooms so much, just magnificent!

A Mario Buatta room. Beautiful colors and comfy furniture. This is the yellow I love the most—a gold yellow. Beautiful.

This is actually the very first photo I saw of Faudree's work. I was smitten immediately. The actual photos shows more of the room but it intrigued me with the dutch-style door and the blue colors. At that time in 1980 I was decorating with blues. That didn't last long but I do remember the first time I saw his work in a designer book I purchased. I still have that book and still love all his decorating.

Another designer I admire is Mario Buatta, who is known as the "Prince of Chintz" and I love chintz. I've never, ever seen a room of his I didn't like. He knows a woman's heart with the decoration of his rooms.

This is another of Buatta's rooms. Clean and beautiful. Very feminine but a room a man would be comfortable in. At least, my husband would be. He likes clean looking rooms.

Sister Parish is a doyenee of the decorating field. This is one of her rooms and I love it! She was always partial to the English country look and one of the very first designers to decorate the White House.

Another Buatta rooms. Small by most standards but done beautifully. Another of my favorites rooms.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Here are more of my favorite rooms. I'm seeing a trend here towards more colorful rooms, besides being cozy for the most part. I'm definitely a Traditionalist, liking English and French flourishes also. I've really tried to like all-white rooms, but I need color. I love color and that's apparent in everything in my life, my home and my world.

The colors and that chair on the left are what drew me to this room, but it is a beautiful room. Fireplaces always add to a room also. We don't have a fireplace but I do have a mantle in my family room for ambiance and as a focus point in this house as it lacks a lot of things we've had before. Actually, I don't like fireplaces to deal with: the cleaning, smoke and ashes have always given me a headache. Hubs would love one but I just don't like getting the sinus attacks from the smoke.

While looking a bit elegant, it isn't really, but more homey. I like it a lot.

A bit less cozy for me with the light colors but I think it's gorgeous. I've noticed that the southern part of our U.S. likes the dark woods more than the light woods also. I like the combination of light and dark.

Who could resist a warm room that wraps its arms around you? I absolutely cannot.

I've seen this room all over the internet and Pinterest and love its English style decor. Furniture is one of the major things I love about a room, as anyone else does. It's what "makes" the room. The seating in this room is something that drew me to it.

Betsy Speert has always been a decorator I admire. Her rooms are cozy, a "must have" in my rooms. She also tends toward having many colors in one room. I like that.

I like lush cushions and furniture in rooms. Gold/yellow and pink/red are my favorite colors for a room. While those cushions are down-filled, they really are not practical. The decorators at Ethan Allen don't recommend them for a sofa or chair that is lived in a lot because the down doesn't give enough support. Down is usually used in Designer Showcase homes to look more lush. It isn't something you want to sit on a lot however. We need firmness for our bottoms and backs. But I love that sofa!

This is a room I could live in, not too big nor too small. I like having more than one seating arrangement in a room but don't in my home because it's too small. This is one of my ideal rooms.

Just a beautiful room facing water. Lots of seating, pink walls and the blue of the water in the sofas.

Another beautiful room with lots of seating, pink as its primary colors and a gorgeous window with beautifully flowing drapes. The ceiling and chandelier also add to its beauty.

Pink walls trimmed with white or paler pink (hard to tell from this photo) and lush gold-colored sofas and touches of gold throughout. Another favorite of mine.

Truly, I don't discount white rooms; I love them. I simply need color in my life. This is an absolutely beautiful room though and I do love it.

This one I like for the coziness. It's French-looking and decorated in a French-style. I love the look of the fireplace though. My ancestry is partly French. I don't like decorating in any one style though because I'm from a very mixed ancestry and love my country above all others.

Another colorful and gorgeous room that struck my heart. It's a Ralph Lauren decorated room. Just so peaceful and gorgeous.

This is another favorite high on my list of living rooms. There isn't much I don't like about this room. High ceilings waste heat and I'm not fond of that but this is still a stunning room to me.

~*~

Monday, December 9, 2013

Just another reminder to visit my pinterest page once again. Currently there are almost 13,000 photos on there and all are quite beautiful. Join the 10,062 followers and look and drool. As I've said, I'll never get them all on this blog and I'd love for you to see them.*

This is my favorite room of all time. I've loved, loved, LOVED this room from the first moment I saw it. Just cozy and colorful enough for me. It was in the very first catalog given to me the first time I went into Ethan Allen about 20 years ago. I still have that catalog and now purchase just about all our furniture from EA. But I've put several rooms that I love on here and I'll do another post on more of them soon. So just sit back and relax.

The color pink will always draw me in, but this room arrangement, columns and the view from the french doors are a draw for me also.

I'm dazzled by what this homeowner did with the windows. How cute can it get?! This room overlooks an orchard so it's definitely appropriate.

While the colors are a bit muted for my taste, I love the stone wall with fireplace and the coziness of it all. A very inviting room in which to sit, read and relax.

I'm going to guess this is an English home and it is adorable. I love the colors of the room, the leather chair—a prerequisite for coziness in my book, and the tidiness of such a small room.

Chairs are a fascination of mine also in decorating. I love the one on the bottom right. The sofa is one I'd have in my home also. All-in-all a beautiful room with pink touches, stone walls, beautiful doors and windows and, again, coziness.

Another English country room, even if it isn't in England. Warm. Inviting. Cozy.

While a bit grand for my taste and budget, it's a totally gorgeous room. I love rooms with books in them since I'm such an avid reader. Actually, I read paperbacks and then go to the used book store and turn them in and get a discount on my next stash of books. It's rare that I'd only buy a few at a time. I usually get 15 or more at a time to keep me supplied. I freak out when I'm down to my last 2 books and have to go to the book store to replenish. My decorating books are kept in bookcases in my living room and office/computer room.

A bit prissy in the drape department but still a gorgeous room. I love the double-sided sofa in the room. Lots of chairs for conversations also. I really do like this room. I just couldn't afford it. BTW, those old steam radiators are the most efficient and even-heating ever. We had steam radiator heating in our last HUGE house and it was the best heat in the world. It was even throughout the house. There were radiators along the baseboards and not those seen under the window below, but I'd have the one below in any room in a heartbeat. They are great. No blowing air on you, just heat.

I'd love to have a room big enough for 2 or 3 sofas like this. Everyone could stretch out just fine this way and I think it's cheaper than a lot of chairs around. At any rate, I do love this room and especially the chandelier. Again, beyond my budget. ;-)

This is relatively close to the first photo on here and I love this one almost as much. I think it's the pink sofa. But I find it stunning and, again, cozy.

Yes, it's a grand room but I love it. Scale down those windows and ceiling height and it could be more affordable.

This one is just an average room but decorated stunningly for comfort, livability and coziness. The colors appeal to me also.

While it looks unattainable for most people, this room could definitely be scaled down to be affordable for most homeowners. It's the details that make this a gorgeous, rich-looking room: the coffered ceilings, the murals on the wall. Other than that it is elegant, beautiful AND affordable for some.

This room is one of the few modern rooms I like. It exudes comfort and coziness. A great view helps also.